Stocks Sharply Lower into Final Hour on Rising Energy Prices, AT&T Comments and Financial Sector Weakness

BOTTOM LINE: The Portfolio is slightly lower into the final hour on losses in my Medical longs, Software longs and Internet longs. I have not traded today, thus leaving the Portfolio 75% net long. The overall tone of the market is negative today as the advance/decline line is lower, sector performance is mostly negative and volume is above average. Investor anxiety is above average again. Today’s overall market action is bearish. The ISE Sentiment Index hit a very depressed 46.0 this morning, near the historic low of 36.0 that occurred on July 3, 2006. The S&P 500 rose 16.3% over the next 8 months. The fact that negative news is still having such an impact on the broad market is a near-term negative. I still think we are very close to a meaningful bottom, however. Current weakness is providing very attractive entry points for long-term growth stock investors, in my opinion. I expect US stocks to trade mixed-to-higher into the close from current levels on short-covering and bargain hunting.